Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, president of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312 399 4747, bblaine@SNAPnetwork.org)

We firmly oppose the notion of Congressional hearings into how the NCAAA dealt with Penn State over the Joe Paterno/Jerry Sandusky scandal. This request, by Pennsylvania politician Jake Corman, seems like more posturing for Penn State fans who refuse to accept the reality that a fine football coach did not call police about child sex abuse suspicions.

Congress has refused, over decades, to take a single action to investigate or expose clergy sex abuse and cover up by Catholic priests, bishops, nuns, seminarians and brothers.

Abroad, a number of national or regional governments have conducted investigations and issued reports about this continuing crisis, including Ireland, Australia, Canada and Belgium.

But since the first US pedophile priest made national headlines 30 years ago (Fr. Gilbert Gauthe, Diocese of Lafayette Louisiana), Congress has done virtually nothing.

If there are to be Congressional hearings, they should be about the 6,427 US priests that are credibly accused of sexually assaulting more than 100,000 children. (See BishopAccountability.org)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We were founded in 1988 and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

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I like this post, well said Barbara.
Congress should get it’s priorities right. The United Kingdom government is to soon start a major investigation into child sexual abuse at major British institutions, both government & non government institutions. If a nation like Britain can conduct such an investigation then a better nation like the USA certainly can.
Keep up the good work SNAP.